Beautiful sunny day in late August it was. A good time to do the 4.1-mile loop hike in the Tualatin Hills Nature Park a few miles west of home in the heart of the city of Beaverton. The 222-acre Park surrounds the confluence of Cedar Mill Creek and Beaverton Creek.
It is a remarkably diverse wildlife preserve with wetlands, forests, ponds and streams. The trails’ names tell the story – – – Oak, Creek, Old Wagon, Vine Maple, Big Fir, Cougar, Chickadee, Cedar Grove, Ash, Serviceberry, Big Pond, Trillium Loop and Ponderosa Loop.
The highlight of the hike was spotting a pileated woodpecker, the largest woodpecker in the country. Always a pleasant place to visit.
Pileated Woodpecker
Bittersweet Nightshade
Skipper Butterfly (?)
Aster
Cattails
Orange Balsam
Crab Spider on a Queen Anne’s Lace
Lovely blog post. Thank you for letting me see places I wouldn’t see otherwise. And what a sweet little spider. (Did I just say that?)
I almost missed the spider. It blended in very well with the white flower, but the red markings gave it away.
Enlarge that spider to the size of a medium dog and you have the makings of a great horror film.
The Plleated Woodpecker is the highlight for me.